BJP points out 'factual errors' in Babri report

December 09, 2009 17:46 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday dubbed the Liberhan Commission report, probing the Babri Masjid demolition, as devoid of any credibility and said the 'leakage' of the report was as dubious as its content.

"The report is devoid of any credibility, a report which is an exercise in futility, a report which has been called a dud report and the ATR (Action Taken Report) itself indicates it is an un-implementable report," Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said.

Participating in the discussion on the report, he said it was a 'fraud on fact finding process' and asked why it took 17 years to prepare the report. He took a dig at Justice Liberhan saying he perpetuated his 'self-employment' for 17 long years after retirement and added that the 'leakage' of the report is as dubious as its content.

Jaitley wanted to know who was the de facto author of the report and pointed out that the Commission itself names Harpreet Singh Giani, who analysed the evidence and gave the ideas for writing the report.

"The Commission is a truth investigator, not a political pundit ...The Judge (Justice Liberhan) ignored entire evidence and came to a finding," pointing to a series of 'inconsistencies and factual errors' in the report.

Jaitley said Liberhan was a junior judge of the Punjab High Court and questioned the process of selection of judges which invited noisy protest from the Treasury benches.

"A report cannot become a national embarrassment," he said, adding that a 'puny judge' who takes 17 years to prepare the report for self-employment with an eye on 'future employment' cannot be taken seriously.

"He errs on basic facts...Gets the date of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination wrong...He says Veer Savarkar was the founder of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)..," Jaitley said, pointing to the factual errors in the report.

The Leader of Opposition rubbished the report for putting M A Jinnah's words in the mouth of RSS and Jan Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

"...And you want the country to take the report seriously?" he asked, adding that the Commission had a huge bias against social justice and Mandal Commission.

Jaitley also picked holes in various recommendations of the report, saying the whole report was 'full of howlers and is a tragedy of errors.'

Referring to the names of former interim prime minister Gulzari Lal Nanda of the Congress and Devraha Baba, who died two years before the demolition, in the report, he asked how could the commission indict senior BJP leader L K Advani in the report when it is full of errors.